Interview mit Dr. Patrick Jahn: "Nurses have more to offer than empathy"

Dr. Patrick Jahn, from the University Hospital in Halle, Germany, argues that the role of nurses in Germany should move forward. Nurses in Germany are generally appreciated for their empathic capabilities. Yet, they have more to offer than empathy: their expertise covers symptom management on through to care procedures that are essential to the patient’s health and wellbeing. As recent studies have shown, palliative care and symptom monitoring by nurses can prolong the life of patients. Thus, nurses can play a role in patient treatment that complements and augments that of the doctors’. To understand the role of nurses and doctors it is important to study their perceptions of patients’ needs. For example, in a cross-European study, Dr. Jahn and his colleagues showed that caregivers often underestimate the impact of nausea in cancer patients. A good nurse-patient relationship, he argues, could make it easier to notice nausea in a patient and initiate the right treatment. Such studies indicate ways in which doctors and nurses could complement each other in the treatment process.

October, 17-18, 2016 EONS, Dublin

Vortrag zum Thema "Was ist supportive Pflege?" (englisch)

Mr Jahn reviews the definition of supportive care and its role in managing cancer-care-related symptoms. The multinational association of supportive care in cancer (MASCC) defines supportive care as the prevention and management of the adverse effects of cancer and its treatment. It includes managing physical and psychological symptoms and side effects from initial diagnosis, throughout treatment and onto post-treatment care. The most important aspects of supportive care are: enhancing rehabilitation, preventing secondary cancer, focusing on survivorship and successfully managing end-of-life care.

Supportive care makes excellent cancer care possible, and nurses play an important role in achieving good outcomes. Nurses and physicians are working together through associations such as MASCC to provide patients the best supportive care possible.

Symptom management is very complex in this area, hence all professions must play a role and should combine clinical data, objective data and patient-experience data (i.e., patient-reported outcomes). Mr Jahn reviews his research into using patient-reported outcomes, which is defined as any report coming directly from a patient about a health condition and its treatment.

In clinical practice, many issues must be addressed in order to effectively incorporate patient-reported outcomes, including what to implement, who assesses the data, and how to address patient safety.